Review of Highlander: The Search For Vengeance

Introduction

I really am a glutton for punishment. Like many others of my age, I fell for the charms of Highlander when it debuted on VHS all those years ago (Back then cinemas were tumbleweed infested wastelands). Pop video styling combined with a compelling story, and an awesome Queen soundtrack made for a memorable experience. The rampant decapitations didn`t hurt either. "There can be only one!" If only… At that age, I was motivated by brand loyalty more than critical thinking, and it must have been through self hypnosis or mood altering substances that I convinced myself that the sequels, The Quickening and The Sorcerer were worthy of my repeated viewing. Then came the series, where suddenly the world became infested with immortals, and continuity, never a priority in the films, flew out the window never to return. There was also the cartoon series, promising, but never quite delivering decapitations at teatime. It got to the point where anyone named MacLeod, besides Connor, Duncan or Quentin, could be expected to be a dab hand with a sword and long-lived to boot.

That`s where reality kicked in, or I stopped watching TV through the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniels. The television series got progressively worse, with apparently half the population of the planet swinging a katana in search of the Prize. I never even bothered with the spin-off. I finally, and thankfully realised what a mess The Quickening is, and at last understood Sorcerer to be the thin remake that it actually was. But the agony didn`t end there. A fourth movie came out, one in which Connor and Duncan would bugger up continuity once and for all, a movie that wasted the talents of Donnie Yen, a film in which the immortal Connor MacLeod looked positively geriatric. Endgame was the final nail in the coffin of a hideous franchise based on one good film.

Or at least that was what I thought. There`s life in the old zombie yet. Apparently going straight to zoetrope is the fifth movie, Highlander: The Source. A film that is apparently so bad that it sat in the tin for years before anyone had the guts to release it, and then only in Russia. But what perked my ears up, what made me grit my teeth and reluctantly request this review disc was the news of a Highlander anime. I love anime, and I once had a juvenile crush on Highlander. Could the combination of the two actually breathe life back into this mouldering corpse? Yoshiaka Kawajiri, the director of X, Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, and Wicked City takes the helm of this anime version of the Highlander tale, and I`m actually feeling a little excited and nauseous at the same time about the prospect.

The review disc is a screener, meaning it in no way resembles the final product. I knew this before requesting the disc, so there will be no complaints at this end, just another example of this franchise drawing me like a moth to the flame. Regardless of whether I get burnt again, the tech scores will remain blank. But strike one against the release is the news that it is cut, and cut against the director`s wishes. The complete version of The Search For Vengeance is 100 minutes, but you know Hollywood. The suits upon high prefer sex and violence to character development and story, so initially released is this shorter 85-minute version. It being an anime, you`d also think there was a Japanese soundtrack floating around somewhere. It isn`t on this release. Those lucky Americans will be getting a Special Edition in September with the full movie on. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether we`ll see it in the UK.

The story is summarised quite neatly up above, so I won`t bother with repetition.

Video

You lucky retail purchasers will have a nice shiny anamorphic transfer. Not yours truly, who had to put up with a grainy letterbox image. Still, the animation was present and correct, and really quite nice to look at. If you`ve seen Fist Of The North Star and Ninja Scroll, you`ll recognise the character design style. It suits the Highlander universe quite well, blending reality and fantasy. Expect a few Ninja Scroll style grotesques, but fortunately they are dispensed with early on. The animation is fluid and punchy, the action sequences certainly work well, and all I could really complain about were a few rather simplistic backgrounds. This being a modern animation, 3D CG and traditional 2D animation are blended together to make a very pleasing whole. But given the options available to modern animators, the Quickening effects look a little naff.

Audio

This may be an anime, but since Highlander is predominantly an English production then I`ll stick my neck out and say that the absence of a Japanese soundtrack is no great loss here. Anyway, with a Frenchman playing a Scot, and a Scot playing an Ancient Egyptian masquerading as a Spaniard, authenticity of language was never a selling point of the original Highlander. Actually the animation looked as if it was animated primarily for the English language, and the dialogue flows very well. The voice actors suit their roles, and there is even an echo of Queen in parts of the score. Very Highlander, and of course dodgy Scottish accents abound, "Hoots mon!"

Features

You`ll probably see about half an hour`s worth. Don`t ask me what they are though.

Conclusion

That has to be the best Highlander sequel yet! Ok, as recommendations go that isn`t up to much, given the Highlander franchise, but bear with me. The Search For Vengeance is actually a nice little story, with interesting characters, which manages not to replicate any of the faults of the other sequels and spin offs. The original Highlander`s problem was that it was a film that shouldn`t have had a sequel. Connor MacLeod wipes out the other Immortals, wins the Prize, and lives happily ever after. End Of Story. The subsequent sequels found convoluted ways of adding more Immortals to the mix, The Quickening added an ill-conceived Planet Zeist subplot, and all tried to add to a mythology that was elegant and sufficient enough in the first place. The television series and following films made that worse by trying to reconcile two separate continuities and created a mythology and back-story that was so bloated that it boggled the mind.

The Search For Vengeance goes in completely the opposite direction. I must admit that the post apocalyptic scenario had me worried for a minute. The ozone layer plot of the second film replaced with a global warming setting would have been a definite turn-off. But this is a post apocalyptic vision more akin to Fist Of The North Star. It provides a lawless future world that offers plenty of opportunities for some serious bloodletting, action is practically guaranteed. What this film does is capture the essence of the original Highlander movie. It`s got the pop culture feel to it, the simplicity of concept that doesn`t invite any serious thought. Immortals are among us, and they fight each other, killing each other by decapitation and resulting in an awesome light show. Throughout the centuries Colin MacLeod has been hunting Marcus Octavius, the man who murdered his wife, and he finds him in a post apocalyptic New York. The main story, as is typical for the genre follows him as he finally learns that vengeance is a wasteful self-destructive process, that he has wasted his life away, that he has betrayed the love of his wife. Once he learns this, then he is ready to kill the bad guy. Simplistic, self-serving morals, but what else would you want from an action movie.

Where Search For Vengeance could have failed is if it got tangled up in continuity, back-story and mythology. Instead it ignores it. There`s no mention of any other MacLeod, no mention of the Watchers, no need to reconcile the story with anything else. In fact it goes a little too far in my opinion. There`s no mention of the Immortals battling for the Prize, and the implication is that they just hack away at each other for the thrill of it. That may be a function of the edits. Losing 15 minutes of the story definitely shows, some of the characterisations are thin, and there are a few plot holes that need filling. That is the one major drawback to this film. The animation is excellent, the story accessible and the action exceptional. It`s fun to watch, but it does on occasion feel as if someone has left the meat out of the sandwich.

Highlander meets Ninja Scroll and manages to breathe life into a franchise that I had previously considered better off buried. It`s a Highlander film in almost every respect, good guys versus bad guys, swords a-swinging, heads a-flying, flashbacks through history, and the obligatory soft focus sex scene before the final confrontation. This disc is well worth a watch, but if you are interested in adding to your Highlander collection, it may be worth waiting to see if Manga UK follows in the footsteps of their US counterparts and release a special edition featuring the uncut film. Finally, Colin is the name of an accountant, not a latter day Samurai.